Search Results for: Vic torian Skills reform

With the Prime Minister set to announce a training reform package, which is said to include quality assurance measures, to take to the next Council of Australian Governments, the Victorian Government has announced its own measures to keep out so-called “dodgy” training providers. A rapid investigation team and a new star rating for training providers are being set up to expose the rogue operators Higher Education and Skills Minister Peter Hall says are undermining the education industry. The moves come amid concerns the state’s open-market training sector is fuelling a rise in useless diploma courses at private providers rorting government-funded enrolments. The Australian reports that Tertiary Education Minister Chris Evans has signalled that the states could be pushed to apply their funding exclusively to training in areas of industry demand. He highlighted the recent deal with South Australia as a model to ensure states encouraged enrolments in the skills they needed. The SA approach, if adopted by other states, could discourage enrolment spikes in areas of dubious industry need – for example the recent 1000% increase in fitness instructor courses in Victoria. Courses for horticulture, agriculture, warehouse administration and delivery driving have also experienced blowouts in Victoria’s open training market. Senator Evans said the SA approach also required colleges “to demonstrate how they are responsive to the needs of industry” if they wanted to be able to provide government-supported training places or access to loans.

Julia Gillard’s announcement of sweeping reform of national VET funding arrangements, with income contingent loans at its heart, has evoked a full range of emotional responses from various stakeholders. The Australian Council for Private Education and Training (ACPET) is rather enthusiastic; most commentators and peak groups such as TAFE Directors Australia TDA) are guardedly welcome; and the Australian Teachers Union is utterly appalled at the prospect.

___________________________________________________________

Leading commentator Gavin Moodie (RMIT – # 29 & bullet on The Oz Hotlist) observes that while the national agreement for skills and workforce development adopted by governments in 2008 aims to double the number of diploma and advanced diploma completions by 2020, workplace competition has led to degree enrolments growing strongly while diploma/advanced diploma enrolments have flatlined. The removal of caps from university enrolments, while diplomas remain capped, will only exacerbate that. But uncapping diplomas to increase their uptake will need, realistically, student fees to increase substantially to make it affordable for governments. Setting the political difficulties this presents governments, this needs a HECS-style universal loan system so that increased fees don’t become a barrier to greater participation and attainment. Which is exactly where Pat Forward (Australian Education Union ) takes fright. She says portraying it as somehow a “better deal for VET students” is simply an attempt to mask a significant policy change in the VET area …“to shift the funding of vocational education away from governments and onto individual students.”

But there is a point on which they all mostly agree: avoid the Victorian model of reform, which includes income contingent loans, at all costs. Brian MacDonald, the long serving CEO of Northern Melbourne Institute of TAFE, describes the Victorian model as ”… costly,damaging to) the TAFE brand and the TAFE sector, has not delivered to match skills shortages and is a navigational quagmire [for those seeking information about courses]. It drags resources away from core business activity to be wasted on mindless bureaucratic micro-management in the absence of effective regulation”.

The Commonwealth is expected to take its reform proposals to the next Council of Australian Governments (COAG) meeting in March, along with a bucket of money as an incentive for state/territory sign up ($1.7 billion over four years, though the extent to which that is new money is disputed) .

It could all , of course, be rather moot. Moodie points to research by Tom Karmel(director of the National Centre for Vocational Education Research) which shows that :

Diplomas from the vocational education and training sector are rapidly losing their currency in a labour market looking for ever higher qualifications which risks a narrowing of the VET sector’s appeal. The diploma and advanced diploma are under threat. There is nothing wrong with these qualifications, but they lead to lower level jobs than in earlier generations.

The future relevance of diplomas may be as a transition point to a higher degree qualification.

Like this:

Over 81, 000 applicants for a place in a Victorian university or TAFE institute received notification on 16 January 2012 about the success or otherwise of their applications.

Overall , the Victorian Tertiary Applications Centre (VTAC) issued 59,992 offers on behalf of universities and participating TAFES and private colleges [GO HERE FOR VTAC DATA]. The majority of these – 47, 927 – were offers of a place at a university. With early offers to 9,559 applicants, the total number of domestic applicants with the offer of a place at a university was 54,155 (discounting multiple offers), an increase of 8.5% over last year and an overall record. Since caps were relaxed in 2009, university offers have increased a whopping 22%, with particularly strong growth at RMIT (+44%), Australian Catholic University (+40%), La Trobe (+35%) and Deakin (+34%) [TABLE 1 and TABLE 2].

The overall percentage of applicants receiving an offer has lifted from 72% in 2009 to 79% in 2012, which means that Victorian universities’ offer rates catching up with the national average. DEEWR reported that for admission in 2011 Victoria’s offer rate was 73.4%, well below the national average of 78.1%.

Notably, the growth of annual offers of 10,400 since 2009 is consistent with the finding of the Lee Dow Report (2009) that, allowing for the contribution of net migration, “…Victoria will require at least an additional 10,000 commencements each year” to meet Victoria’s economic and social needs.

There was strong growth in both applications and offers in Health (+14.9% in offers), Engineering and Related Technologies (+13.9%) and Education ((+6.7%). Offers in Information Technology declined (-5.8%) despite applications being up (+6%) [TABLE 3].

TAFE offers issued by VTAC have dropped by 4,600 or 27% since 2009 and private colleges have almost halved to 2,200. TAFE applications fell by 3,099 or 30% over the same period, while there was little change in private college applications. However, these figures relate only to applications and offers made through VTAC – most applications and offers for TAFE and private colleges are handled directly rather than through VTAC. While the growth in university enrolments might be having some impact on TAFE enrolments, as reported in some media (Vic universities expanding at expense of TAFE), the real challenge to TAFE is the explosive growth in enrolments in private RTOs under Victorian “Skills Reform”, which in the space of just a couple of years, has seen the TAFE share of the VET market decline precipitately, from about 75% to just over 50%. This situation also presents a real challenge to government, with the obvious risk of substantial historic public investment in the TAFE system being stranded and debased and some distortion in training outcomes, as shown by some well publicised examples of rorting of the skills funding system.

With such significant expansion in recent years, offers have obviously been made to people with lower ATARs than was previously the case in the capped system (or no ATAR at all). VTAC reports that for 607 courses in which offers have been made in 2012, the “clearly in” ATAR dropped for 313 courses, remained the same for 75 courses and actually went up for 219 (the “clearly in” ATAR is the point at or above which all ranked (eligible) applicants who applied for a particular course were made an offer for that course). The increasing proportion of early offers (+8.5% in 2012) and alternative entry pathways would likely understate the drop. Swinburne reports that over 25% of entarnts to its higher education divion enter via TAFE pathways and in 2011, nearly half of offers by Victoria University were outside the VTAC process.

Emmaline Bexley, a lecturer in higher education at The University of Melbourne, observes in The Age that it would be a mistake to suggest this would lead to a ”dumbing down”.

”Letting people in with an ATAR of 50 is brilliant as long as students are educationally prepared,” Dr Bexley said.

She said while universities tended to use high cutoff rankings as an indicator of the prestige of their degrees, this was a ”bit of a game” and the rankings were more indicative of demand for a course than what was required.

”This is going to give institutions more flexibility and allow a larger group of students in,” Dr Bexley said.

The proportion of applicants from low SES backgrounds receiving offers for university places was 75%, the same as the medium –high quartile and slightly less than the 78% of applicants from the highest SES quartile.

Over 81, 000 applicants for a place in a Victorian university or TAFE institute received notification on 16 January 2012 about the success or otherwise of their applications.

Overall , the Victorian Tertiary Applications Centre (VTAC) issued 59,992 offers on behalf of universities and participating TAFES and private colleges [GO HERE FOR VTAC DATA]. The majority of these – 47, 927 – were offers of a place at a university. With early offers to 9,559 applicants, the total number of domestic applicants with the offer of a place at a university was 54,155 (discounting multiple offers), an increase of 8.5% over last year and an overall record. Since caps were relaxed in 2009, university offers have increased a whopping 22%, with particularly strong growth at RMIT (+44%), Australian Catholic University (+40%), La Trobe (+35%) and Deakin (+34%) [TABLE 1 and TABLE 2].

_________________________________________________

The overall percentage of applicants receiving an offer has lifted from 72% i 2009 to 79% in 2012, which means that Victorian universities’ offer rates catching up with the national average. DEEWR reportedthat for admission in 2011 Victoria’s offer rate was 73.4%, well below the national average of 78.1%.

Notably, the growth of annual offers of 10,400 since 2009 is consistent with the finding of the Lee Dow Report (2009) that, allowing for the contribution of net migration, ”…Victoria will require at least an additional 10,000 commencements each year” to meet Victoria’s economic and social needs.

There was strong growth in both applications and offers in Health (+14.9% in offers), Engineering and Related Technologies (+13.9%) and Education ((+6.7%). Offers in Information Technology declined (-5.8%) despite applications being up (+6%) [TABLE 3].

TAFE offers issued by VTAC have increased by 4,600 or 27% since 2009 and private colleges have almost halved to 2,200. TAFE applications fell by 3,099 or 30% over the same period, while there was little change in private college applications. However, these figures relate only to applications and offers made through VTAC – most applications and offers for TAFE and private colleges are handled directly rather than through VTAC. While the growth in university enrolments might be having some impact on TAFE enrolments, as reported in some media (Vic universities expanding at expense of TAFE), the real challenge to TAFE is the explosive growth in enrolments in private RTOs under Victorian “Skills Reform”, which in the space of just a couple of years, has seen the TAFE share of the VET market decline precipitately, from about 75% to just over 50%. This situation also presents a real challenge to government, with the obvious risk of substantial historic public investment in the TAFE system being stranded and debased and some distortion in training outcomes, as shown by some well publicised examples of rorting of the skills funding system.

With such significant expansion in recent years, offers have obviously been made to people with lower ATARs than was previously the case in the capped system (or no ATAR at all). VTAC reports that for 607 courses in which offers have been made in 2012, the “clearly in” ATAR dropped for 313 courses, remained the same for 75 courses and actually went up for 219 (the “clearly in” ATAR is the point at or above which all ranked (eligible) applicants who applied for a particular course were made an offer for that course). The increasing proportion of early offers (+8.5% in 2012) and alternative entry pathways would likely understate the drop. Swinburne reports that over 25% of entarnts to its higher education divion enter via TAFE pathways and in 2011, nearly half of offers by Victoria University were outside the VTAC process.

Emmaline Bexley, a lecturer in higher education at The University of Melbourne, observes in The Age that it would be a mistake to suggest this would lead to a ”dumbing down”.

”Letting people in with an ATAR of 50 is brilliant as long as students are educationally prepared,” Dr Bexley said.

She said while universities tended to use high cutoff rankings as an indicator of the prestige of their degrees, this was a ”bit of a game” and the rankings were more indicative of demand for a course than what was required.

”This is going to give institutions more flexibility and allow a larger group of students in,” Dr Bexley said.

The proportion of applicants from low SES backgrounds receiving offers for university places was 75%, the same as the medium –high quartile and slightly less than the 78% of applicants from the highest SES quartile.

9 February 2018 | Federation Training has announced that its Managing Director of 20 months, Jonathon Davis, will leave the institute on Thursday 15 February 2018, to care for his ill wife. Grant Radford, currently acting CEO at Chisholm Institute, will take over as interm CEO on 19 March. Until then Virginia Simmons, formerly CEO of Kangan and Chisholm Institutes, among other roles, will fill the role.

30 January 2018 | The Commonwealth Government has released discussion papers on unduly short VET courses and training product reform. The consultation paper on unduly short courses follows ASQA’s report in June 2017 that recommended defining and setting of mandatory training requirements under certain circumstances and related obligations for providers. ASQA made three recommendations.

26 January 2018 | 895 Australians have been recognised with Orders of Australia on Australia Day 2018, 641 In the General Division (basically, civilians). As always, members of the tertiary education sector featured strongly in the honours list, with 119 awards (about 19% in the General Division), particularly in the upper categories. People associated with the tertiary sector received 11 out of the 16 Companion awards (68%), 27 out of 68 Officer awards (40%), 62 of 170 Member awards (36%), for 40% of the higher awards (a proportion which has actually increasing considerably over time) . In the most common category, Medal of the Order, only 19 of 387 awards were tertiary sector related people (5%).

17 January 2018 | As the main round of university offers go out to prospective students across the country this week, Universities Australia says federal funding cuts will leave a projected 9,500 places unfunded by Government in 2018. Chief executive Belinda Robinson said the $2.2 billion cut announced just before Christmas had put Australia’s universities between a rock and a hard place.

16 January 2018 | Some 52,973 Victorian Tertiary Admission Centre (VTAC) applicants received main round offers on 16 January 2018 for undergraduate courses in 2018. Since November 2017, VTAC has also issued 2,547 offers to international Year 12 students and 5,833 early offers. As a result, over 61,353 individuals have received at least one offer at this point, with several more offer rounds to come over the next month. Overall, this is a slight decrease from 2017.

16 January 2018 | The Australian Skills Quality Authority (ASQA) has cancelled the registration of Study Group Australia Pty Limited as a provider of vocational education and training (VET) services, for significant non-compliance with the requirements of the VET Quality Framework. Study Group Australia trades under multiple business names including ACPE Academy, Martin College, Australian Institute of Applied Sciences, Embassy English, Taylors College, ANU College, Flinders International Study Centre, and Taylors Unilink.

Education spending rose dramatically during the global financial crisis, with spending on primary and secondary education increasing 81% to A$24.7 billion in the year to 2009-10 as part of the economic stimulus package.

Rudd’s “education revolution” led to a 12% growth in education spending in the 2008-09 budget, quickly followed by a further 61% spending increase in 2009-10 as part of the economic stimulus package. Spending in the following year fell as the temporary stimulus measures came to an end, but overall, education spending has remained significantly higher in real terms than pre-global financial crisis levels.

Spending on the university sector rose to around A$10.9 billion over the same period, but has remained relatively stable since.

There’s a hint in Budget announcements on higher education that the Government might be entertaining the notion of “teaching-only universities”, reveals Emmaline Bexley (Higher education reform: small changes for now but big ones to come). And about time, too, that the fiction of the “teaching-research nexus” to which Australia slavishly clings be abandoned. The case for a different type of university has been argued for years.

The case for a new university type

It would be reasonable to assume, as many people do, that the word university derives from the Latin universitas, meaning the whole, entire, and is related to the universality of knowledge and learning that notionally characterises a university. Reasonable but not quite on the mark. It actually comes from a contraction of the Latin phrase universitas magistrorum et scholarium, meaning a community of masters (teachers) and scholars (students). So from the earliest times, teaching and learning – the transmission of knowledge and understanding – have been at the heart of a university’s mission. Through the centuries, universities have further emerged as the primary agents of knowledge creation in societies through their research.

Australian Government expenditure on tertiary education has been consistently at 0.8% of GDP since 2000. There has not been a ‘blowout’ in tertiary education spending. If there is a problem, it is simply that the Government needs to bring the Budget back into balance. The contribution that can be made to that objective from the tertiary education sector is at best modest, writes Mark Warburton (LH Martin Institute).

While direct expenditure on higher education student places under the Commonwealth Grant Scheme (CGS) has increased considerably since 2008, this has been substantially offset since 2011 by 13 major savings measures which have reduced spending in other programs of support for higher education teaching. Overall expenditure on higher education teaching has risen broadly in line with GDP. Since 2000, student contributions have increased by 187 per cent, CGS subsidies by 158 per cent and GDP by 144 per cent.

This contrasts markedly with what has been happening in the vocational education and training (VET) sector. Since 2009-10, the Australian Government’s nominal expenditure on VET has declined by $0.6 billion or 16 per cent and this decline will have reached $1.2 billion or 30 per cent by 2017-18.

There is currently a lack of coherent strategy aimed at ensuring that VET resourcing is being used efficiently. The expansion in VET FEE HELP that has occurred could potentially ensure that VET resourcing is maintained despite expenditure reductions. Currently, there appears to be substantial disparity in the level of resourcing of the VET sector in comparison to that in the higher education sector and it is not clear that this relates to a substantial difference in their need for resources. The distribution of VET resources is changing rapidly and is not fully understood. Some areas of VET activity are declining in ways that may have adverse impacts on the availability of skills in the Australian labour market.

Share this:

Like this:

895 Australians have been recognised with Orders of Australia on Australia Day 2018, 641 In the General Division (basically, civilians). As always, members of the tertiary education sector featured strongly in the honours list, with 119 awards (about 19% in the General Division), particularly in the upper categories. People associated with the tertiary sector received 11 out of the 16 Companion awards (68%), 27 out of 68 Officer awards (40%), 62 of 170 Member awards (36%), for 40% of the higher awards (a proportion which has actually increasing considerably over time) . In the most common category, Medal of the Order, only 19 of 387 awards were tertiary sector related people (5%).

Academics obviously have a very high level of nominations and the nominators are obviously, as you would expect, very good at putting together the applications. Not so women who continue to be under represented with30% of all awards, mainly in the Medal category. Only a couple of the tertiary sector awards were to people in the VET sector and there weren’t many schhol teachers. It’s puzzling to many observers that prople on prestigiuos jobs and on generally high incomes (judges and lawyers, professors and doctors) get big gongs for doing their day jobs for a long while punters who give a lifetime’s service in a voluntary capacity (say, in the CWA, the Guides and Scouts, local sporting organisations and charities) get the lesser awards. You don’t see too many punters above AM.

COMPANION (AC) IN THE GENERAL DIVISION OF THE ORDER OF AUSTRALIA

Dr Gregory John CLARK, NSW

For eminent service to science as a physicist, researcher and academic in the area of technological development and communications, to business as an innovator and enabler of emerging technologies, and to the promotion of philanthropy. Visiting Fellow, ANU College of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, Australian National University..

Professor Rhys JONES, Vic

For eminent service to mechanical and aerospace engineering, and to education as an academic, researcher and author, particularly in the area of aircraft structural mechanics, corrosion repair and airworthiness. Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Monash University.

Professor David William KISSANE, Vic

For eminent service to psychiatry, particularly psycho-oncology and palliative medicine, as an educator, researcher, author and clinician, and through executive roles with a range of national and international professional medical bodies. Head of Psychiatry, School of Clinical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences, Monash University.

Professor Janet Susan McCALMAN, Vic

For eminent service to education, particularly in the field of social history, as a leading academic, researcher and author, as a contributor to multi-disciplinary curriculum development, and through the promotion of history to the wider community. Professor of History, School of Population and Global Health, University of Melbourne.

Professor Trevor John McDOUGALL, NSW

For eminent service to science, and to education, particularly in the area of ocean thermodynamics, as an academic, and researcher, to furthering the understanding of climate science, and as a mentor of young scientists. Scientia Professor of Physical Oceanography, School of Mathematics and Statistics, University of New South Wales.

Emeritus Professor Lewis Norman MANDER, ACT

For eminent service to science through pioneering contributions to organic chemistry in the field of plant growth hormones, to higher education as an academic, researcher and author, and to national and international scientific societies. Emeritus Professor, Research School of Chemistry, Australian National University.

Professor Jennifer Louise MARTIN, Qld

For eminent service to science, and to scientific research, particularly in the field of biochemistry and protein crystallography applied to drug-resistant bacteria, as a role model, and as an advocate for gender equality in science. Director, Griffith Institute for Drug Discovery, Griffith University. Foundation Director, Remote Operation Crystallisation and X-ray Diffraction Facility, University of Queensland.

Professor Ezio RIZZARDO, Vic

For eminent service to scientific technological research and development in the field of polymer chemistry, to its application in the biomedical, electronics and nanotechnology context, as an author, and through mentorship roles. Adjunct Professor, Monash University.

Professor Jeffrey Victor ROSENFELD AM, Vic

For eminent service to medicine, particularly to the discipline of neurosurgery, as an academic and clinician, to medical research and professional organisations, and to the health and welfare of current and former defence force members. Director, Monash Institute of Medical Engineering, Monash University.

Professor Nicholas Joseph TALLEY, NSW

For eminent service to medical research, and to education in the field of gastroenterology and epidemiology, as an academic, author and administrator at the national and international level, and to health and scientific associations. Pro Vice-Chancellor (Global Research) and Laureate Professor, University of Newcastle.

Professor Maree Rose TEESSO, NSW

For eminent service to medicine, particularly to the prevention and treatment of substance use disorders, as a researcher and author, to innovative mental health policy development, to education, and as a role model for young researchers. Principal Research Fellow, – National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, University of New South Wales.

OFFICER (AO) IN THE GENERAL DIVISION OF THE ORDER OF AUSTRALIA

Emeritus Professor David John AME, Vic

For distinguished service to psychiatry, particularly in the area of dementia and the mental health of older persons, as an academic, author and practitioner, and as an adviser to professional bodies. Foundation Professor of Ageing and Health, University of Melbourne.

Dr Rosalie Pam BALKI, ACT

For distinguished service to maritime law through roles with a range of organisations, to the improvement of global shipping transport safety and standards, and to education as an academic and author. Member, Board of Governors, World Maritime University () (Malmo, Sweden).

Professor Martin Gerhardt BANWELL, ACT

For distinguished service to science education as an academic, author and researcher, particularly in the field of synthetic organic chemistry, to scientific institutes, and as a mentor of emerging scientists. Professor of Chemistry, Leader – Synthesis and Mechanism, Australian National University.

Emeritus Professor Michael Newton BARBER, NSW

For distinguished service to higher education administration, and in the field of mathematical physics, particularly statistical mechanics, as an academic and researcher, and through contributions to science policy reform. Vice Chancellor, 2008-2014, Flinders University.

Professor Mark Cameron BURRY, Vic

For distinguished service to spatial information architecture as an academic, researcher and author, and as an innovator in the application of digital manufacturing and construction methods. Professor, Urban Futures, Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning, University of Melbourne. Founding Director, Spatial Information Architecture Laboratory, RMIT University.

Emeritus Professor Michael David COPER, ACT

For distinguished service to legal education, and to the law, as an academic, author and administrator, through advisory roles, and to safety standards in the transport industry. Dean and Robert Garran Professor of Law, 1998-2012, Australian National University.

Professor David Richard COVENTRY, SA

For distinguished service to primary industry, particularly to sustainable agricultural production, as an academic and researcher, and through the facilitation of training programs and scholarships in developing countries. Professor of Sustainable Agricultural Production, 1996-2011. Adjunct Professor. University of Adelaide.

Professor Hugh Lucius DAVIES, ACT

For distinguished service to Australia-Papua New Guinea relations, particularly in the area of the geological sciences, and to education as an academic, author and researcher. Professor of Geology, 1989-2012, University of Papua New Guinea.

Professor Creswell John EASTMAN AM, NSW

For distinguished service to medicine, particularly to the discipline of pathology, through leadership roles, to medical education, and as a contributor to international public health projects. Clinical Professor of Medicine, University of Sydney.

Professor Caroline Frances FINCH, Vic

For distinguished service to sports medicine, particularly in the area of injury prevention, as an educator, researcher and author, and to the promotion of improved health in athletes and those who exercise. Director, Australian Centre for Research into Injury in Sport and its Prevention, Federation University.

Professor Suzanne Marie GARLAND, Vic

For distinguished service to medicine in the field of clinical microbiology, particularly to infectious diseases in reproductive and neonatal health as a physician, administrator, researcher and author, and to professional medical organisations. Honorary Professorial Fellow, Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, University of Melbourne.

Professor David Joshua HANDELSMAN, NSW

For distinguished service to medicine, particularly to reproductive endocrinology and andrology, as a clinician, author and researcher, to the science of doping in sport, and to medical education. Professor in Reproductive Endocrinology and Andrology, Sydney Medical School, University of Sydney.

Dr Paul John HEMMING, Vic

For distinguished service to higher education administration, to medicine through contributions to a range of professional medical associations, and to the community of central Victoria, particularly as a general practitioner. Chancellor, Federation University Australia, since 2012.

Professor Anthony David HOLMES,Vic

For distinguished service to medicine, particularly to reconstructive and craniofacial surgery, as a leader, clinician and educator, and to professional medical associations. Honorary Clinical Professor, Department of Paediatrics, current and Associate, since 1981, University of Melbourne.

Professor Jonathan Myer KALMAN,Vic

For distinguished service to medicine, particularly to cardiac electrophysiology as a clinician and academic, and through roles with a range of national and international heart rhythm societies. Professor of Medicine, University of Melbourne, since 2002.

Associate Professor Neville John KING, Tas

For distinguished service to medicine and medical education, particularly in the field of cognitive and behaviour therapy, as an academic, researcher and author, and to professional associations. Deputy Head and Director of Clinical Programs, Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences, Centre for Developmental Psychiatry and Psychology, 1989-2008, Monash University.

Professor Marilyn Lee LAKE , Vic

For distinguished service to higher education, particularly to the social sciences, as an academic, researcher and author, and through contributions to historical organisations. Professor of History, School of Historical and Philosophical Studies, since 2013, University of Melbourne.

Emeritus Professor Russell Duncan LANSBURY, NSW

For distinguished service to industrial relations education as an academic, researcher and author, through contributions to international arbitration foundations, and as a mentor of young academics. Emeritus Professor, Faculty of Economics and Business, since 2009, University of Sydney.

Professor Ronald Paul MITCHEL, NSW

For distinguished service to ophthalmology as a clinician, particularly in the management of age-related macular degeneration, through research into public health and ophthalmic epidemiology, and as an educator. Professor, Clinical Ophthalmology and Eye Health, Westmead Clinical School, University of Sydney.

Emeritus Professor Ingrid MOSES, ACT

For distinguished service to higher education through senior academic management positions in Australian universities, and to a range of community and church organisations. Chancellor, 2006-2010, Deputy Vice-Chancellor, 1995-1997, University of Canberra. Vice-Chancellor and President, University of New England, 1997-2006.

Dr Simon Blanchette POOL, NSW

For distinguished service to science in the field of photonics research and development, as an academic, and to the telecommunications industry through advisory roles and board memberships. Co-Founder and Technical Director, Optical Fibre Technology Centre, University of Sydney, 1988-1995. Director, Sydney Node, Australian Photonics Cooperative Research Centre, 1991-1995.

Dr David Andrew SINCLAIR, USA

For distinguished service to medical research into the biology of ageing and lifespan extension, as a geneticist and academic, to biosecurity initiatives, and as an advocate for the study of science. Professor, School of Medicine, University of New South Wales, since 2011. Professor, Harvard Medical School.

Laureate Professor Scott William SLOAN, NSW

For distinguished service to education, particularly in the field of geotechnical engineering, as an academic and researcher, to professional associations, and as a mentor of young engineers.: Laureate Professor of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, since 2008. Professor, 1998-2008. University of Newcastle.

Professor John Douglas TURNIDGE, SA

For distinguished service to medicine as an infectious disease physician and microbiologist, particularly to the advancement of health policy in the area of antimicrobial resistance, and to professional medical organisations. Chair, Expert Advisory Group on Antimicrobial Resistance, 2001-2010, National Health and Medical Research Council.

Professor Laurence James WALSH, Qld

For distinguished service to dentistry, and to dental science education, as an academic and author, to improved health and safety standards, and through roles with professional associations. Professor, Dental Science, current. Head, School of Dentistry, 2004-2013. University of Queensland.

MEMBER (AM) IN THE GENERAL DIVISION OF THE ORDER OF AUSTRALIA

Mr Richard Henry ANICICH, NSW

For significant service to the community of the Hunter, to business development and medical research, and to the law. Conjoint Professor of Practice, School of Law, Faculty of Business and Law, since 2014. Member, Advisory Board, Faculty of Business and Law. University of Newcastle.

Ms Catherine Mary BAXTER, NSW

For significant service to education administration in rural New South Wales, to training programs for Indigenous students, and to the community. TAFE NSW: Regional General Manager, since 2016. Institute Director, 2010-2016.

Dr Robin Anthony BEDDING, ACT

For significant service to science in the field of entomology as a researcher, and to the forestry industry both nationally and internationally. Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO): Honorary Fellow, since 2002. Research Scientist, Division of Entomology, 1969-2002.

Dr Michael Charles BELLEMORE, NSW

For significant service to medicine in the field of paediatric orthopaedics as a surgeon, to medical education, and to professional medical societies. Senior Clinical Lecturer, University of Sydney, since 1987. Adjunct Clinical Associate Professor, since 2012. University of Notre Dame, Sydney.

Professor George BRAITBERG, Vic

For significant service to medical administration and emergency medicine, to education and health system design, and to the community. Inaugural Professor of Emergency Medicine, University of Melbourne, since 2014. Past Inaugural Professor of Emergency Medicine, Southern Clinical School, Monash University.

Dr David Francis BRANAGAN, NSW

For significant service to the geological sciences as an academic, researcher and author, to professional groups, and to the community. University of Sydney: Honorary Research Associate, School of Geophysics, 1975-1989, and currently. Coal Research Fellow, 1958-1960. Lecturer, 1960-1965. Senior Lecturer, 1965-1975.

Professor Stephen William BURDON, NSW

For significant service to information technology and telecommunications, to education, to the visual arts, and to Australia-Asia cultural relations. Professor, Strategic Management and Technology, School of Systems, Management and Leadership, University of Technology Sydney, since 1999.

Emeritus Professor Shelley Mary BURGIN, Qld

For significant service to environmental science and education as an academic, author, and mentor, and to zoology and conservation. University of Western Sydney: Emeritus Professor, since 2011. Professor, Urban Sustainable Environmental Management, Bond University, 2012-2015.

Mr Neville John CARTER, NSW

For significant service to legal education through executive roles, to the law as a practitioner, and to professional standards. Chief Executive Officer and Principal, The College of Law, since 1991.

Adjunct Professor Charlotte Francis CHAMPION DE CRESPIGNY, SA

For significant service to nursing, and to nurse education, particularly in the field of drug and alcohol care, and to Indigenous health projects. University of Adelaide: Adjunct Professor, School of Nursing, since 2015. Professor of Drug and Alcohol Nursing, 2008-2015. Flinders University: Joint Chair, Professor of Drug and Alcohol Nursing, School of Nursing and Midwifery and Alcohol Services SA, 2000-2008.

Dr Colin Ross CHILVERS, Tas

For significant service to medicine in the field of anaesthesia as a clinician, to medical education in Tasmania, and to professional societies. Clinical Senior Lecturer, School of Medicine, University of Tasmania, current.

Mr Edwin Thomas CODD, Qld

For significant service to architecture, industrial design and to the built environment, to education, and to professional institutes. Queensland Institute of Technology: Head, School of the Built Environment, 1975-1979. Acting Head, Charles Fulton School of Architecture, 1972-1975. Member, Academic Board, 1972-1979. University of Queensland: Member Faculty Board, 1973-1977.

Emeritus Professor Denis Ivan CRANE, Qld

For significant service to education in the field of biochemistry and molecular biology, as an academic and researcher, and to scientific Griffith University: Emeritus Professor, current; Professor, 2008-2017, Griffith University.

Mrs Maya Alexa CRANITCH, NSW

For significant service to education, to teaching English as a second language, through educational programs for refugees, and to social justice. Australian Catholic University: Honorary Fellow, current. Lecturer in Teacher Education, 1992-2015. University of Sydney: Lecturer, School of Education and Social Work, since 2012. Teaching Fellow, English Department, 1970-1974.

Mr Colin CREIGHTON, Qld

For significant service to environmental science and natural resource management, particularly to marine biodiversity, coastal ecology, fisheries and sustainable agriculture. Adjunct Principal Research Scientist, Centre for Tropical Water and Aquatic Research, James Cook University, since 2015.

Adjunct Professor Ian Maxwell DUNN, Vic

For significant service to the law, to legal standards, education, and specialist accreditation, and as a practitioner in the areas of negotiation and dispute resolution. Adjunct Professor, School of Law, La Trobe University, since 2002.

Mr Christopher Robin ECKERMANN, ACT

For significant service to the telecommunications industry through roles in broadband infrastructure and network development, and to the energy supply sector. Adjunct Professor, Network/Communications Technologies, Business Models, Project Management, University of Canberra, since 2005.

Professor Susan Leigh ELLIOTT, Vic

For significant service to education as an academic administrator, as a clinician in the field of gastroenterology, and to educational institutions in the Asia-Pacific. Monash University: Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Vice-President (Education), since 2017. University of Melbourne: Emeritus Professor, since 2017. Deputy Provost and Deputy Vice-Chancellor (International), 2014-2016. Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Engagement), 2012-2014. Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Global Engagement), 2009-2012. Pro Vice-Chancellor (Teaching, Learning and Equity), 2008-2009.

Mr David Nathan FLANAGAN, WA

For significant service to the mining sector through a range of roles, to higher education, to philanthropy, and to the community. Chancellor, Murdoch University, since 2013.

Mr Angelos Marcelo FRANGOPOULOS, NSW

For significant service to the broadcast. Pro Chancellor, Charles Sturt University Sydney, since 2014. Council Member and Deputy Chair, Audit and Risk Committee, 2002-2014.

Mr Peter John GILL, Vic

For significant service to aged welfare, to the provision of pioneering palliative care programs, to medical education, and to the community. University of Melbourne: Chair, Advisory Committee, Centre for Palliative Medicine Foundation, 2008-2014 , University of Melbourne. : Chair, Victorian Planning Advisory Committee, Australia Catholic University, since 2015. Member, Victorian Chapter, since 2006.

Emeritus Professor John Charles GRANT-THOMSON RFD, Qld

For significant service to biomedical engineering, and to education, as an academic and researcher, to medical equipment design, and as a mentor. Service includes: University of Southern Queensland – Faculty of Engineering and Surveying: Emeritus Professor, since 2016. Honorary Professor, Biomedical Engineering, 2003-2012. Professor and Chair in Biomedical Engineering, 1996-2003. Laerdal Chair of Biomedical Engineering, 1996-2001. Associate Dean, Resources, 1988-1996.

Associate Professor Peter HAERTSCH OAM, NSW

For significant service to medicine in the field of plastic and reconstructive surgery as a clinician and administrator, and to medical education. Clinical Associate Professor, University of Sydney, current. Founding Chairman, Sydney Burns Foundation – a Division of the Medical Foundation Sydney University, 2008-2014.

Professor Ian Godfrey HAMMOND, WA

For significant service to medicine in the field of gynaecological oncology as a clinician, to cancer support and palliative care, and to professional groups. University of Western Australia: Clinical Professor, Division of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, since 2004. Adjunct Professor, School of Anatomy, Physiology and Human Biology, since 2003. Lecturer, School of Biomedical Sciences, Curtin University, 1996-2002.

Associate Professor Nerina Susan HARLEY, Vic

For significant service to medicine in the fields of intensive care and nephrology, as an administrator, and to medical research and education. Affiliation not known.

Dr Mary Gale HARRIS, SA

For significant service to community health, specifically to workforce management and administration, to policy reform, and to medical education. Adjunct Associate Professor, Department of Healthcare Management, Flinders University, current.

Professor Donald James HENRY, Vic

For significant service to wildlife preservation and to the environment through leadership and advocacy roles, and to education. University of Melbourne: Melbourne Enterprise Professor of Environmentalism, since 2016. Public Policy Fellow – Environmentalism, Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute, 2014-2016.

Mr Jon Meredith HICKMAN, Vic

For significant service to the community, particularly to education, heritage preservation, infrastructure and financial planning, and to public administration. Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Victoria University, 2006-2012.

Professor Patricia Elizabeth HOFFIE, Qld

For significant service to the visual arts, and to education, as an academic, and as a contributor to a range of cultural institutions and associations. Queensland College of Art: Past Deputy Director, Research and Postgraduate Studies. Past Deputy Director, Teaching and Learning. Lecturer and Professor of Fine Art, 1970-2016.

Dr Robin Glyn JONES, NSW

For significant service to the community through support for refugees, as a contributor to social welfare assistance organisations, and to education. Education: Teacher, Queensland Department of Education, 1998-2002. Lecturer/Senior Lecturer, University of New England, 1990-1997 and intermittently, 2003- 2014. Teacher, New South Wales Department of Education, 1982-1989. Teacher, Australian Capital Territory Department of Education, 1969-1981. Teacher, Papua New Guinea Department of Education, 1963-1968.

Dr Peshotan Homi KATRAK, NSW

For significant service to rehabilitation medicine as a practitioner, to medical education and professional organisations, and to the Zoroastrian community. Conjoint (Honorary) Lecturer, Rehabilitation Medicine, University of NSW, current.

Adjunct Professor John William KELLY, Vic

For significant service to medicine through the management and treatment of melanoma, as a clinician and administrator, and to education. Adjunct Professor, Monash University, since 1997.

Professor Sharad KUMAR, SA

For significant service to medical research in the field of cancer and cell biology, as a scientist and author, to medical education, and as a mentor. National Health and Medical Research Council: Senior Principal Research Fellow, since 2004. Principal, 2001-2003 Senior Principal Research Fellow, SA Pathology, 2001-2013. University of South Australia: Senior Principal Research Fellow, since 2014. Chair of Cancer Biology and Research Professor of Cell Biology, since 2014. Affiliate Professor, University of Adelaide, since 2001.

Emeritus Professor Noeline June KYLE, NSW

For significant service to history, and to higher education, as a researcher, author and educator, and through advisory roles for arts funding programs. Service includes: Queensland University of Technology: Emeritus Professor, since 2001. Foundation Professor and Head, School of Cultural and Policy Studies, 1991-1996. Professor, School of Language and Cultural Studies, 1997-2001. University of Wollongong: Coordinator, Equity in Education Program. Deputy Head, School of Learning Studies. Lecturer, 1984-1989. Associate Professor, 1989-1991.

Dr Philip William LADDS, NSW

For significant service to veterinary science as a clinician, to education as an academic, researcher and author, and to professional associations. Southern Cross University: Associate Professor and Specialist Veterinary Pathologist, Graduate Research College and Veterinary Pathology, circa 2002-2009. James Cook University: Associate Professor and Founding Head, Pathology Department, Post Graduate School of Tropical Veterinary Science, 1993-1998. Senior Lecturer, 1971-1983.

Ms Jennifer Suzanne LANG,NSW

For significant service to the higher education sector, particularly to international student recruitment, and to export market growth. Service includes: University of New South Wales (UNSW): Vice-President, Advancement, 2012-2017. Chief Executive Officer, UNSW Foundation, 2012-2016. Pro-Vice Chancellor (International), 2006-2012. Executive Director, UNSW International, 1998-2006. Queensland University of TechnologyCoordinator, International Relations Unit, for 7 years. Employee, 1987-1997, including at Brisbane CAE, 1987-1989.

Associate Professor Peter Laurence McNICOL, Vic

For significant service to medicine, particularly in the fields of anaesthesiology, liver transplantation, and transfusion medicine. Un iversity ?

Associate Professor Henrietta Lilian MARRIE, Qld

For significant service to the community as an advocate for Indigenous cultural heritage and intellectual property rights, and to education. Service includes: Associate Professor, Indigenous Engagement, Office of Indigenous Engagement, Central Queensland University, current. Adjunct Associate Professor, Centre for Social Responsibility in Mining, University of Queensland, current. Visiting Fellow, United Nations University – Institute of Advanced Studies, current. James Cook University: Adjunct Professor, Cairns Institute, since 2010. Coordinator and Lecturer, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Participation, Research and Development Centre, 1992-1994. Governor-In-Council appointee, Council, 1995-1997. Lecturer, Division of Education, Brisbane College of Advanced Education/Griffith University, 1988-1990.

The Honourable Professor Howard Tomaz NATHAN QC, Vic

For significant service to the law and to the judiciary through the Supreme Court of Victoria, and to a range of cultural, arts and education institutions. Affiliation not known.

Professor Frank OBERKLAID OAM, Vic

For significant service to medicine in the field of clinical paediatrics, child development, and public health policy, as a researcher and academic. Honorary Professor of Paediatrics, University of Melbourne, current.

Dr John James O’DONNELL, Qld

For significant service to health administration through the leadership and development of research institutes and public and private hospitals. Adjunct Professor, School of Medicine, University of Queensland; Adjunct Professor, Faculty of Health, School, Public Health and Social Work, Queensland University of Technology Adjunct Professor, Griffith Business School, 2009-2013.

Mr Hayden David OPIE, Vic

For significant service to education as an academic specialising in sports law, and through roles with integrity, anti-doping and appeals tribunals. Service includes: University of Melbourne: Honorary Senior Fellow, Sports Law Program, Melbourne Law School, current. Senior Lecturer and Director of Studies, Sports Law Program, Melbourne Law School, 1987- 2016.

Mr Simon Paul POIDEVIN OAM, NSW

For significant service to education through fundraising and student scholarship support, to the community through the not-for-profit sector, and to rugby union. University of New South Wales: Board Member, UNSW Foundation, since 1997. Emeritus Member, Lexcen Sports Scholarship Committee, current.

Associate Professor Morton Christopher RAWLIN, Vic

For significant service to the medical profession particularly through governance in the areas of general practice and medical education. Adjunct Associate Professor, General Practice, University of Sydney, since 2009.

Professor Margaret Anne ROSE, NSW

For significant service to animal welfare and the ethics of scientific research, and to veterinary science as an academic and clinician. Conjoint Professor, Prince of Wales Clinical School, University of New South Wales, current.

Dr Jennifer Claire ROSEVEAR, SA

For significant service to music education in South Australia, particularly through curriculum development at the tertiary and secondary levels. University of Adelaide: Visiting Research Fellow, current. Deputy Director (Teaching and Learning), Elder Conservatorium of Music, 2009-2015 (retirement). Head of Undergraduate Music Programs, 2009-2015. Senior Lecturer in Music Education, 1994-2014. Lecturer, 1985-1994.

Professor Norman Ruthven SAUNDERS, Vic

For significant service to medicine in the field of neuroscience through research into spinal cord injuries and mechanisms protecting the developing brain, and to sailing. University of Melbourne: Head, Developmental Neuroscience and Neurotrauma Laboratory, Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, School of Biomedical Sciences, current. Professorial Fellow, Neuroscience, since 2002.

The Honourable Thomas Harrison SMITH QC, Vic

For significant service to the law and to the judiciary in Victoria, to the administration of justice, independent court governance and legal reform, and to education. Adjunct Professor, Faculty of Business and Economics, Monash University, 2009-2014.

Ms Jozefa Bronislawa SOBSKI, NSW

For significant service to women’s rights and migrant advocacy, and to higher education and skills based training. Deputy Director-General, TAFE Educational Services, Department of Education and Training, New South Wales Government, 1997-2001. Director, South Western Sydney Institute of TAFE, 1992-1997. Former Member, Commonwealth Tertiary Education Commission; Former Member, TAFE Advisory Council; Former Member, Advanced Education Council. Former Chair and Member, National Vocational Education, Employment and Training Women’s Taskforce. Principal, Meadowbank College of TAFE, late 1980s to 1991. Senior Executive, Department of Technical and Further Education, New South Wales Government, 1986 to late 1980s.

Dr Michael Philip STANFORD, WA

For significant service to the health sector through executive roles, to tertiary education, and to the community of Western Australia. Curtin University of Technology: Pro Chancellor, since 2013. Council Member, since 2008.

Dr Reginald Raymond STORRIER, ACT

For significant service to agriculture specialising in soil science, to education as an academic and administrator, and to the Catholic Church in Australia. Dean, School of Agriculture, Riverina-Murray Institute of Higher Education (now Charles Sturt University), 1982-1990 and appointed, Professor of Agriculture, 1990. Principal Lecturer, School of Agriculture, Riverina College of Advanced Education, 1976. Principal Lecturer, Wagga Agricultural College, 1973-1975; Senior Lecturer, 1971-1973.

Associate Professor Jennifer Susan THOMSON, ACT

For significant service to medicine as a general practitioner, to medical education, to professional organisations, and to the community. Australian National University: Honorary Associate Professor, Academic Unit of General Practice, Medical School, since 2010. Consultant, Academic Unit of General Practice and Community Health, School of Medical School, 2003-2007. Associate Professor, Rural Clinical School, Medical School, 2007-2008.

Emeritus Professor Grant Clement TOWNSEND, SA

For significant service to dentistry in the field of craniofacial biology, and to dental education through research, teaching and mentoring roles.: University of Adelaide: Emeritus Professor, current. Professor, Dental Science, 1994-2017. Director, Assessment, School of Dentistry, 2007-2016. Leader, Craniofacial Biology and Dental Education Group, 2010-2016. Lecturer, Oral Anatomy, 1978.

Dr Cecil Hugh TYNDALE-BISCOE, ACT

For significant service to science in the field of marsupial reproductive biology and ecology, as a researcher and mentor, and to professional societies. Australian Academy of Science: Council Member, 1992-1995. Vice-President, 1993-1994. Fellow, since 1986. Committee Member, current. CSIRO: Honorary Fellow, 1995-2005. Inaugural Director, Cooperative Research Centre for Biological Control of Vertebrate Pest Populations, 1992-1995. Chief Research Scientist, Marsupial Biology Group, Division of Wildlife Research, 1976-1995. CSIRO Fellow, 1994-1995.

Professor Mark Peter UMSTAD, Vic

For significant service to medicine in the field of obstetrics, particularly complex pregnancies, as a clinician, consultant and academic. Clinical Professor, Department of Medicine, University of Melbourne, current.

Professor Robert VINK, Mylor SA

For significant service to medicine, particularly in the field of neurotrauma, as a researcher, author, educator and advocate, and to the community. Pro Vice-Chancellor, Health Sciences, University of South Australia, since 2014. University of Adelaide: Chair, Neurosurgical Research, 2005-2015. Director, Adelaide Centre for Neuroscience Research, 2009-2013. Head, School of Medical Sciences, 2006-2013. Vice President, Florey Research Foundation, 2010-2013. Deputy Executive Dean, Faculty of Health Sciences, 2008-2012. Head, Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Associate Professor and Senior Lecturer, James Cook University Townsville, 1988-2001.

Dr Elsina Margaret WAINWRIGHT, NSW

For significant service to international affairs, through Australian defence, foreign policy and conflict prevention studies, as an analyst and academic. Service includes: Adjunct Associate Professor and Senior Fellow (Non-Resident), Alliance 21 Program, United States Studies Centre, University of Sydney, since 2015. Adjunct Associate Professor, Centre for International Security Studies, University of Sydney, 2007-2015.

Professor Anthony Steven WEISS, NSW

For significant service to science in the field of biotechnology, as an academic, researcher, author and mentor, and through executive roles with scientific institutions. Service includes: University of Sydney: McCaughey Professor in Biochemistry, since 2015. Honorary Professor, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, 2010-2015. Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biotechnology, current.

Professor David George WOOD, Vic

For significant service to chemical engineering education as a researcher, mentor and academic, and to professional organisations. University of Melbourne: Dean and Professor of Engineering, 1997 – 2002. Head of Department of Chemical Engineering, 1982 – 1996.

Professor Barbara S WORKMAN, Vic

For significant service to geriatric and rehabilitation medicine, as a clinician and academic, and to the provision of aged care services. Professor of Geriatric Medicine, School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University, since 1997.

Professor Richard Keith WORTLEY, Qld

For significant service to criminology and psychology through the development of security and crime science education. University College London: Director, Jill Dando Institute of Crime Science, since 2010. Head, Department of Security and Crime Science, since 2010. Professor of Crime Science, since 2010. Griffith University: Adjunct Professor, Key Centre for Ethics, Law, Justice and Governance, current.

MEDAL (OAM) OF THE ORDER OF AUSTRALIA IN THE GENERAL DIVISION

Professor William Robert ADAM PSM, Vic

For service to medical education, particularly to rural health. Service includes: University of Melbourne: Professor of Medicine and Deputy Head, Department of Rural Health, since 2003. Contributed to the establishment of the Rural Clinical School and the Murray to Mountain Rural Intern Training Program in North-East Victoria.

Associate Professor Christopher Roger ASHTON, ACT

For service to medicine, and to medical education. Associate Professor and Sub-Dean, Calvary Hospital Campus, Medical School, Australian National University, 2008-2011.

Associate Professor Anthony Paul AVSEC, Qld

For service to the building and construction industry, and to education. Queensland University of Technology: Adjunct Associate Professor, School of Science and Engineering Faculty, Civil Engineering and the Built Environment, since 2013. Sessional Lecturer, 2008-2011. Course Content Reviewer, Bachelor of Urban Design Course, current. Mentor in Career Mentor Scheme, since 2011.

For service to medicine as a paediatrician. Clinical Senior Lecturer, Department of Paediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Adelaide. Visiting Lecturer, School of Medicine, Department of Paediatrics, Flinders University.

Dr Marjorie Winifred CROSS, NSW

For service to medicine, particularly to doctors in rural areas. Rural Teacher and Clinical Supervisor, Australian National University, since 2006.

Associate Professor Mark Andrew DAVIES, NSW

For service to medicine, particularly to neurosurgery. Conjoint Associate Professor, University of New South Wales, current.

The late Dr Michelle Sue DEWAR, NT

For service to the community of the Northern Territory. Charles Darwin University: Consultant, Northern Institute, 2011-2012. Lecturer, 1988-1993.

For service to emergency medicine, and to professional organisations. Associate Professor, Griffith University School of Medicine, since 2006. Member, Research Investment and Advisory Committee, Australian e-Health Research Centre, CSIRO, since circa 2004.

Dr David Christopher HUNT, NSW

For service to education, and to mathematics. Service includes: University of New South Wales: Honorary Associate Professor, School of Mathematics and Statistics, since 2005. Associate Professor/Senior Lecturer/ Lecturer, 1971-2005.

Dr Andrew James LUCK, SA

For service to medicine in the field of colorectal surgery. University of Adelaide: Research Fellow, The Queen Elizabeth Hospital, 1997-1998. Clinical Senior Lecturer, since 2001. Lecturer, Accident/Emergency Nursing Diploma, University of South Australia, 1997-1998.

Mrs Tazuko McLAREN, NSW

For service to education, and to Japan-Australia relations. Southern Cross University, (SCU), Lismore Campus: Lecturer in Japanese, Faculty of the Arts, New England University of the Northern Rivers, since 1993.

Associate Professor Julian Lockhart RAIT, Vic

For service to ophthalmology, and to the development of overseas aid. Associate Professor, Centre for Eye Research Australia, University of Melbourne, since 2005.

Dr Gilbert James SHEARER, Qld

For service to dentistry, particularly to endodontology. School of Dentistry, University of Queensland: Seminar Presenter, Endodontic Post-Graduate Program, 1990-2001. Undergraduate Clinical Supervisor, 1974-1984.

For service to medicine, particularly to gastroenterology. Clinical Associate Professor, University of Melbourne, 1988-2006.

PUBLIC SERVICE MEDAL (PSM)

Mr David Archibald COLLINS, NSW

For outstanding public service to vocational education in New South Wales. Mr Collins has shaped vocational education and training (VET) in New South Wales, and at a national level, for over 12 years. With his strong leadership, clear communication, negotiation talents and ingenuity he has secured over $1 billion in funding for New South Wales, and delivered on programs that ensure the state continues to remain at the forefront of VET.

The News

This year’s top ten reads were heavily skewed towards the “VET crisis” and attempts by authorities (rather belatedly in our view) to stamp out the obvious rorting, particularly in VET FEE-HELP funding, which has been truly scandalous. In fact, the number one post this year on The Scan is also the number one post of all time and by quite a bit. If you enter “rorting” in the search box in the top right hand corner, the archive runs to 5 pages, VET FEE-HELP runs to another 5 pages (obviously with some overlap) and that’s only the start of it. Quite why NSW university offers rated so highly might be explained by the fact that NSW newspapers now provide precious little coverage of the event. The seemingly generous pay arrangements of vice-chancellors certainly attracted reader interest (and good on The Oz for pulling the story together) and academic gongs remains a perennial favourite. However, the weightiest issue of the year in higher education was the late Abbott government’s deregulation package which died ignominiously in the Senate and led to then minister Christopher Pyne’s manic performance as The Fixerin an interview with David Speers on Sky News.

3 March 2015 | One of Australia’s biggest private training providers is being accused of using salespeople who target disadvantaged areas and enrol poor students with fake entrance exams. Last financial year Careers Australia billed taxpayers for almost $110 million in VET FEE-HELP loans. Former sales broker Chris Chambers confirmed that sales brokers were taking the entrance exams for potential students….[ READ MORE ]….

20 January 2015 | As in Victoria, the traditional January main round of university offers in NSW, through the University Admissions Centre (UAC), is decreasing in prominence in the calendar. Offers through the year and direct offers are becoming increasingly the norm. This year, universities have made 46,507 offers through UAC ‘s main round, down 4,307 (- 9%) on last year….[ READ MORE ]….

15 June 2015 | Australia’s highest paid vice-chancellor, Michael Spence (University of Sydney) saw his salary package increase by $120,000 last year to reach $1.3 million, an analysis of annual reports by The Australian shows. He was followed by Greg Craven from the Australian Catholic University ($1.2m)….[ READ MORE ]….

22 April 2015 | Private training provider Vocation has been forced to recall more than 1,000 of its qualifications, including hundreds in child care and aged care, after Victorian regulators found the courses were sub-standard. Almost 200 students who completed a Certificate III in Child Care, 250 students who completed a Certificate III in Aged Care, and 383 students with a double qualification of business studies will have to hand back their qualifications and inform their employers….[ READ MORE]….

15 February 2015 | The new Victorian Labor government has announced a comprehensive, independent review of the funding of Victoria’s vocational education and training (VET) system, as presaged during the election campaign. Minister for training and skills Steve Herbert says the VET Funding Review will provide a more sustainable model for public TAFE Institutes and private training providers. Government contributions to public TAFEs fell from $733 million in 2011 to $468 million in 2014, leaving many TAFEs at risk of financial collapse….[ READ MORE]….

12 February 2015 | Labor, the Greens and four independent senators (Senators Xenophon, Lambie, Muir, Rhiannon and Lazarus) have joined forces to establish another inquiry into higher education reform, to report by 17 March. The committee will consider alternatives to deregulation, likely future demand for places and implications on student loans, research infrastructure and regional provision. The inquiry will also look to investigate “the appropriateness and accuracy of government -advertising in support of higher education measures” and “other related matters”….[ READ MORE ]….

26 January 2015 | Six hundred and thirty five Australians have been recognised with Orders of Australia on Australia Day 2015, while a further 59 military and 130 meritorious awards were announced. Members of the tertiary education sector featured strongly in the honours list, with 81 awards, particularly in the upper categories. People associated with the tertiary sector received 4 out of the 5 Companion awards (80%), 16 out of 38 Officer awards were to people associated with the tertiary sector (42%), 46 of 156 Member awards (29.5%), for a 33% of the higher awards….[ READ MORE ]….

29 June 2015 | The Victorian Government is launching a major blitz to crackdown on “dodgy” training providers in order to lift standards in sector. A review by Deloitte has revealed widespread abuses, including qualifications being issued to students who have no demonstrable skills, inappropriate marketing practices, short course duration, providers claiming government funding for non-existent training delivery and poor oversight of third parties delivering training….[ READ MORE ]….

28 October 2015 | The Commonwealth government has released a synthesis report of the past seven reviews of higher education over the past 30 years rather than conducting a further separate review in the wake of its failed higher education reform package. Education minister Simon Birmingham told the Australian Financial Review’s Higher Education Summit said that the government is under intense time pressures to come up with a new and revitalised higher education reform package….[ READ MORE ]….

With the Labor Party poised to form a minority government in Queensland, its promise to rescue the TAFE sector will now come into sharper Focus. Queensland VET student numbers fell 38,000 in 2013.During the election campaign, Labor leader and soon to be premier Annastacia Palaszczuk (who pronounces her surname as “Pallashay”) made a number of commitments to address the vocational educational and training system.

A century ago, in November 1915, physicist Albert Einstein unveiled a theory that would change the world — general relativity. ABC science reporter Bernie Hobbs explains this mind bending theory – the development of which was driven by experiments that took place mostly in Einstein’s brain (that is, so-called “thought experiments”).

From Forbes Magazine

The Mercedes-Benz F 015 Luxury in Motion research vehicle is offering a vision of autonomous driving in the future. The luxury saloon with total connectivity gives a preview of how the self-driving car of the future could become a platform for communication and interaction.

From Forbes Magazine

………………………………………………………………………………………………………

The Mercedes-Benz F 015 Luxury in Motion research vehicle is offering a vision of autonomous driving in the future. The luxury saloon with total connectivity gives a preview of how the self-driving car of the future could become a platform for communication and interaction.

As selected by the staff of Dymocks

………………………………………………………………………………………………………

“An emotionally-charged and often traumatic novel that is sure to shock you. Be prepared for an emotional rollercoaster, the likes of which I have never before experienced from a book. It’s my must-read title of 2015.”

From The New York Times

………………………………………………………………………………………………………

“This was the year of the great unravelling, with international orders and borders challenged or broken, with thousands of deaths, vast flows of migrants and terrorist attacks on some of the most cherished symbols of civilization, both Western and Muslim.”

…………………………………………………………………………………………………….……

A child standing near police controlling a rush of refugees into Macedonia.

See

From Vogue Magazine

………………………………………………………………………………………………………

“I’ve never seen a Cannes screening more hushed than it was during Hou Hsiao-Hsien’s story about a reluctant female assassin (ravishing Shu Qi) during the Tang Dynasty. Although the story is a bit puzzling and rarefied—Hou plunges us right into 9th-century China—the film is a triumph of pure cinema, staggeringly beautiful in its evocation of a distant time and sensibility. It has the mysterious radiance of a Vermeer.”

So much insightful, funny and cutting commentary comes from Australia’s great cartoonists. Many people miss out. Inspired by Barrie Cassidy’s Insiders Talking Pictures, this Facebook page – Political Cartoons Australia – has a selection of the year’s best cartoons.

Share this:

Like this:

28 June 2016 | The number of apprentices across Australia has plunged since the Coalition took office, government figures show, with some of the steepest falls occurring in high-unemployment marginal seats still up for grabs at Saturday’s election. Western Sydney has lost 10,642 apprentices and western Melbourne 4782, while the national total fell 28 per cent from 383,562 to 278,583, between December 2013 and December last year, documents obtained under Freedom of Information and NCVER data reveal. Labor claims the falling take up of apprenticeships is a direct result of the $1 billion stripped from trades support programs since the change of government, including the abolition of the ‘Tools for Your Trade’ (TFYT) program – which paid $5500 to apprentices over two years – and other training and mentoring programs. The Coalition replaced the program with a loans scheme which has been taken up by just 40,000 apprentices in the past two years. Labor proposes to reintroduce TFYT as a grants scheme of $3,000….[ READ MORE ]….

28 June 2016 | A Labor government would establish 10Commonwealth Institutes of Higher Education, on a trial basis. They would involve universities and TAFE Institutes working together to deliver associate degrees and advanced diplomas. At a total cost of A$430 million, 10,000 Commonwealth Supported Places would be available. These “HECS” places would be funded at 70% of the normal rate. This essentially creates a new layer of tertiary education, not unlike colleges of further education in the UK, delivering “foundation degrees” or community colleges in North America. Students could study a two year sub-bachelor, higher education course at one of these institutions, then if they wish to complete a full degree they would receive credit for study to date. At that stage they would go on to a normal HECS place at a university, which would be 100% funded during the final year. The idea, it seems, is to have a network of such tertiary education institutions, bringing together the best of applied higher education and vocational skills training into institutions that are not funded to do research….[ READ MORE ]…..

28 June 2016 | Board appointments for Victoria’s TAFEs have been finalised, with 65 people recommended for ministerial appointments which take effect on 1 July. An independent panel was set up to provide advice to the government on the best people to serve across the 12 TAFE institutes. An expression of Interest process saw 513 people apply to become board members with 239 candidates interviewed. Women make up 54% of the directors. Along with the ministerial appointments, the boards will consist of the institute CEO and a staff-elected member. An interim chair has been appointed to each board, until the board elects a permanent chair….[ READ MORE]….

28 June 2016 | The elite Group of Eight universities have proposed that the Commonwealth government reintroduce limits on how many students each university can enrol, a suggestion slammed by other vice-chancellors. Group of Eight chair Michael Spence said the uncapping of university places in from 2009-21012 had blown out the budget by billions of dollars while leaving important university research underfunded. He went on that, with the target of 40% of young people with an undergraduate degree in sight, “it’s time to declare victory on university participation and focus on the core problems for university funding.” The proposal was rejected by current education minister Simon Birmingham who said he had no desire to dictate how many students each university should enrol. Australian Catholic University vice-chancellor was typically acerbic, describing the Group of “as a group of profiteers who would do anything for their own self interest. The politics of this are cancerous.”.…[ READ MORE]….

28 June 2016 | Private schools are outspending Victorian public schools by four to one, splurging on rowing tanks, pilates studios and sky decks. Some top private schools have spent up to $70 million on capital projects over the past few years as part of a facilities “arms race” to lure students.T he state’s biggest spender, Carey Baptist Grammar School, shelled out about $11.4 million in 2014 on a new learning and innovation centre at its Kew campus. It follows a recent analysis showing the average government funding of some of Victoria’s most elite private schools increased eight times times the rate of the neediest public schools….[ READ MORE ]…..

Australia will receive a bigger economic growth dividend in the long-run by spending on education than offering an equivalent amount of money on a tax cut to business.

However, many economists added the caveat that the quality of education spending was critical. Of the economists surveyed, 29 per cent strongly agreed with the statement, 35.5 per cent agreed, 12.9 per cent were uncertain, 16.1 per cent disagreed and 6.5 per cent strongly disagreed….[ READ MORE ]…..

This is as announced in the Budget on 3 May – the Coalition has made no further policy statements

28 June 2016 | The government has pushed consideration of proposed university reforms, including a 20% cut in funding, out beyond the election, until 1 January 2018. While it has ruled out full fee deregulation, it has released an options paper, to guide a consultation process, canvassing a range of alternative fee measures which would still see substantial fee rises…..[ MORE]….

This is as announced in the Budget on 3 May – the Coalition has made no further policy statements

28 June 2016 | The federal government has proposed a set of tougher measures to fix the VET FEE-HELP blow-out in a discussion paper released on 29 April. The current minister for vocational education and skills senator Scott Ryan said the paper will pave the way for a full redesign of the scheme. The discussion paper catalogues the scale of malpractice by some providers, such as the targeting of low socio-economic status and vulnerable people with inducements to enroll and misleading potential students about their repayment commitments. It proposes a series of measures to improve the integrity of the system including minimum eligibility requirements for VET FEE-HELP, reductions in the lifetime student loan limit, a narrower range of eligible courses, a VET FEE-HELP ombudsman, and payments tied to compliance and student progression. ….[ READ MORE ]….

Of its “100 positive policies”, about 20% (19 to be precise) are in tertiary education. In higher education, Labor has committed to maintaining the demand driven system, backed up by a Student Funding Guarantee to provide “certainty to universities and remove the need for higher fees”. Labor also proposes to create 10 “polytecnics”, a hybrid institution, which would involve universities and TAFE Institutes working together to deliver associate degrees and advanced diplomas. Labor proposes a comprehensive review of the VET system and to take measures to preserve the viability of the public provider network (TAFE). It proposes an $8,000 cap on VET FEE-HELP loans, with room for exemptions where a higher loan can be justified. It will restore the “Tools for Your Trade Program” with up to $3,ooo paid to eligible apprentices to purchase their tools…..[ READ MORE ]….

Having made higher education “reform” a red button issue in its first term – remember how Christopher Pyne was going to “fix it” after it was voted down in the Senate for the second time?? – the Coalition has been totally quiet on it during this election period. It released a discussion paper with the Budget on options for reform, including partial fee deregulation via a limited number of “flagship” courses. Meanwhile, cuts to university funding of 20%, while not enacted, remain on the books. In VET, the Coalition has released a discussion paper canvassing measures that might be implemented to close down the wholesale rorting of the VET FEE-HELP scheme. Interestingly, this includes a possible capon loans, as proposed by Labor but criticised by the Coalition….[ READ MORE]….

The Greens propose to boost funding to the university sector by $8.3 billion over four years, comprising

$7 billion to reverse the Coalition’s funding cuts and fund a 10% increase in base funding per student at public universities; and

$1.306 billion into research to reverse Government cuts to university research.

They propose to reduce students’ HELP costs by 20% and to reinstate the Student Start-Up Scholarships as a grant rather than a loan. the annual cost of $1.403 billion will be more than offset by continuing the ‘deficit levy’ on a permanent basis for those earning over $180,000 per year. In VET, the Greens have a simple three point plan:

Cease providing federal government funds to forprofit VET providers.

Implement a TAFE federal rescue package which boosts funding by $400 million a year.

28 June 2016

………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Labor proposes to introduce a cap of $8,000 on student loans for vocational education and training (VET) courses. A course loan cap is a sensible option, but it must form part of a total redesign of the VET FEE-HELP student loan scheme in the first instance, and of the whole VET funding system in the longer term, writes Peter Noonan in The Conversation.

………………………………………………………………………………………….……

Currently, there are no loan caps for courses where providers set their own fees and don’t receive a course subsidy through the states.

The Labor proposal is to set a maximum loan cap of $8,000 per course funded under VET FEE-HELP (except for some high-cost courses approved by the education minister). The cap doesn’t extend to higher education diploma and advanced diploma courses.

For those courses that are subsidised by the states where fees are regulated, the Commonwealth and the states already have in place fee benchmarks of $5,000 in 2011. This regulated fee is effectively a loan cap.

Unsurprisingly, most of the expansion in VET FEE-HELP and all of the problems with unscrupulous provider behaviour have been in the unregulated fee area, where some providers have charged fees of over 400% more than the price paid by the states for the same course.

The government itself has raised the option of capping loan fees in its recently released VET FEE-HELP discussion paper.

It’s an option the government should have considered last year in its initial reforms to VET FEE-HELP.

The government capped overall provider loan limits at the provider’s 2015 loan levels, but while restraining overall VET FEE-HELP payments, this measure did nothing to reduce excessive fee and loan levels for many courses.

However, if loan limits are to be introduced for VET FEE-HELP, the rationale for setting the loan limits must be carefully thought through.

A small target strategy

28 June 2016

………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Stephen Parker, the soon to retire vice-chancellor of the University of Canberra, was an implacable opponent of the Coalition’s university deregulation package. But from being a red hot issue during most of the last term of Parliament, higher education has hardly figured in the election campaign. The Coalition has slipped the electorate a mogadon and seemingly got away with it. The mogadon will wear of after the election, should the Coalition returned.

………………………………………………………………………………………….……

Higher education policy during the Abbott government was highly controversial and probably a component of Tony Abbott’s undoing.

In his 2014 Budget, then Treasurer Joe Hockey proposed to reduce the Commonwealth Grants Scheme (CGS) to universities by 20%. But he would allow tuition fee deregulation, so that domestic undergraduate students could be charged up to the fee levels of international students, subject to a requirement to create a scholarship pool for students from low socio-economic (SES) backgrounds. Commonwealth-supported places (“HECS” places) were to be extended to sub-degree courses and to private providers.

A real rate of interest would be applied to graduate debtors, existing and future, but this was dropped in an attempt to get the measures through the Senate.

Most commentators agreed that fee levels under deregulation would have risen substantially, perhaps by up to 300%: far more than was required to replace the 20% cut to the CGS.

Relative absence of competition would give most universities the headroom to do this, and the international evidence was that universities do use up all the headroom they are given.

Students would be prepared to pay, it was said, because the income-contingent loan scheme blunted the price signal.

By the time students knew what they had done and whether their degree had been a good investment, it would be too late and they would be saddled with significant debt until middle age.

The opposition Labor party built a campaign around “$100,000 degrees”, and critics raised the spectre of the Americanisation of Australian higher education.

Pushed aside

Given this background one might have expected higher education policy to be front and centre of the 2016 campaign.

But while there has been some distant yapping, this dog has not really barked at all. Why?

One reason may be that Liberal higher education policy is now obscure; perhaps deliberately so – a small target strategy.

Their policy document on education contains almost nothing on universities. It is claimed that “under the Turnbull government, funding for universities is at record levels” at over A$16 billion, but this is the result of an expanded sector introduced in the Rudd-Gillard era.

Similarly, it is said that support for students through the loan scheme is at a “record level”, but this is also the consequence of previous Labor government policies.

The Australian newspaper has been running a none too sophisticated campaign against the boost in education spending of $37 billion over the next decade promised by Labor. It’s a mish mash of half-truths and contortions of logic, as is often the case when The Australian goes politically feral.

………………………………………………………………………………………….……

Labor has drawn on an OECD report, Universal Basic Skills, to supports its argument that increased spending on education not only contributes to equity and social inclusion but is an investment in future improvements in productivity (and, indeed, Malcolm Turnbull’s Ideas Boom). It’s a proposition with which most economists agree.

It’s actually a complicated report, which can be hard to follow, so I don’t fully follow the reasoning entirely myself but I bet I’m doing better than The Australian. But the basic proposition is quite clear:

Setting aside any social and cultural benefits, the attainment of universal basic skills in a country by 2030 would have a substantial positive effect on medium and long run economic growth driven by productivity gains.

The definition of “basic skills” used in this report is “the acquisition of at least level 1 skills (420 points on the OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). This level of skills to “modern functional literacy” (the report has a booming definition of functional literacy (see below).

The report says that the projected economic gains of attaining universal basic skills “would be stunning for all countries – even high income OECD countries”.

In general, by 2095, GDP would be 30% higher than that expected with today’s skills level, representing the result of an annual growth rate that, in the end is 0.5 percentage points higher.

Is that really a lot?

Well, the current GDP of the US is around $US16 trillion: it would see a present value of gains of over $62 trillion.

To subscribe to The Scan….

……. just hit the button below, give us your details and submit. Then when an edition of The Scan is published, you’ll get an email newsletter.

28 June 2016

Cartoons of the Campaign

…………………………………………………

For a complete compendium of Cartoons of the Campaign check out Political Cartoons Australia. The cartoon below is by David Rowe of the Australian Financial Review.

There’s a lot to catch up with but, as they say, plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose (which is, according to the estimable Wiktionary, an epigram by Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr in the January 1849 issue of his journal Les Guêpes (“The Wasps”), meaning “the more it changes, the more it’s the same thing.”)

VET FEE-HELP

As previously reported, changes to the VET FEE-HELP (VFH) scheme legislated late last year provides some better protection of students from the carpetbaggers who have looted the scheme and dudded the students. The government proposes to spend this year look at ways to rort-proof it from the likes of Phoenix. But as so many people have asked: how did it get to this?

Part of the answer is a near pathological obsession by governments – of all stripes – with “deregulation” and “marketisation”. As former Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) chair observed last year, “…..this huge waste of government money is the “inevitable consequence” of governments funding the private sector to deliver a public good. From the home insulation debacle to export market development grants, film industry tax incentives, health and education subsidies, Samuel says the same thing has been happening “as long as I’ve been alive”:

Business is much, much smarter than governments, and business knows how to exploit and you can’t deal with that using people sitting in Canberra or Spring Street. The rogues – and they’ll be there in any industry – they say with glee, all the way to the bank, ‘Come in spinner’!”

This is not to argue against competition and a role for private providers but you have to have, among other things, a robust regulatory system. Quite evidently, this has not been the case.

Under its legislation, ASQA has a broad power to cancel qualifications where it is satisfied of certain matters, including where it is satisfied that a RTO did not provide the assessment necessary for a student to demonstrate they have achieved the relevant learning outcomes…..To date, ASQA and its predecessor VET regulators have not implemented the wholesale cancellation of qualifications as part of their regulatory approaches. In the four years since its establishment, ASQA has exercised this power sparingly, involving approximately seven RTOs (or former RTOs), 350 individuals, 250 qualifications and 225 statements of attainment.

ASQA has broad powers generally but has been timid in exercising them, seemingly because of the costs. The same discussion paper notes:

A series of civil penalty provisions is set out in the National Vocational Education and Training Regulator Act 2011 (NVETR). Where one of these is breached, ASQA make seek a civil penalty order through the courts. This is likely the strongest of the enforcement options available to ASQA.

The relative failure of ASQA to rein in rorters may have spared its budget but has led to massive costs for the public purse and for individuals. It’s been left to the ACCC to take on the rorters (see).

And it seems that there’s been a fair dollop of administrative incompetence, as well. A recent ABC Background Briefingrevealed a “communication breakdown”, whereby the Commonwealth education department did not share VFH data with ASQA until early 2015. Such data might have allowed ASQA to judge which training organisations were growing fastest and therefore posed a high regulatory risk. ASQA has strongly refuted that there was a breakdown of any consequence and points out that, “following liaison with DET”, it launched a targeted program of 21 audits of training providers approved to offer courses under VET FEE-HELP. Three RTOs were assessed as being critically non-compliant with the requirements of the VET Quality Framework at the conclusion of the audit process and, following a ‘show cause’ process, had their registrations cancelled. These RTOs were:

Unique International College

Cornerstone (Empower)

Australian Institute of Professional Education.

In addition, ASQA has cancelled the registration of the Phoenix Institute.

Each of these for four “providers” have been hauled by the ACCC into the Federal Court, along with Acquire Learning, which is an education broker, for among other things, allegedly making “false and misleading statements and engaging in “unconscionable conduct”. The ACCC is seeking recovery of VFH payments and cancellation of VFH student debts. Just to give you the flavour of this, in 2014 Cornerstone’s Empower Institute enrolled 5,000 students, charging them about $15,000 for an online business diploma course. It received $46 million in VET FEE-HELP payments and graduated just 5 students: that’s right, nearly $10 million a pop!

Separate to this, the Aspire group of colleges – Aspire College of Education, The Design Works College of Design, the Australian Indigenous College and the affiliated RTO Services Group and National Training and Development – collapsed in mid-February, affecting thousands of students. With 20 campuses across Australia, the group had $83 million in revenue in 2014-2015 – mostly through VET FEE-HELP payments. Fairfax Media reported that the group had been recently audited by ASQA and found to be compliant.

VET funding

A sustainable and realistic funding model is another prerequisite of an effective VET system. In real terms, VET funding has been declining for years. According to the Productivity Commission’s Report on Government Services, that trend continues: recurrent funding for the VET sector by Commonwealth, state and territory governments totalled $5.2 billion in 2014, a 12 % cut from 2013.

VET assessment

The discussion paper referred to above, in the context of ASQA’s performance, is actually about improving VET assessment practices which I don’t think is a particular issue at this stage. As I told The Australian, and we’ll leave it at that:

Brendan Sheehan said any moves to limit the reputational damage caused to the VET sector by rorting private colleges was welcome, but (he) doubted changing rules around assessment would have any real impact. He said strong policing of the sector and rule changes to ensure dodgy colleges repay government subsidies and VET FEE-HELP advances, such as was now happening in Victoria, would have a much more direct and permanent impact.

The paper suggests that having specialist trainers and teachers who require a diploma to do assessments would have a positive impact. But the real problems lie with online training and companies that have ripped billions out of VET FEE-HELP. I’m not sure if the overall quality of assessment is the actual big issue. Sure, it’s part of it, but it’s not the whole story.

Assessment is hardly the problem when you’ve got outfits like Empower getting just 0.125% of their enrolled students to completion of their courses.

The national market

The drive to create an effective and efficient national training market, enthusiastically embraced by the former Gillard Commonwealth government, spurred on by the innovative approach of the former Victorian Brumby government, has been less than successful (see everything above). A series of NCVER papers shows that what we’ve ended up with is a “hotchpotch of eligibility rules, fees ,subsidies course lists and contract settings”:

Kaye Bowman, first author of all four papers said the differences fly in the face of two decades of reform aimed at building a nationally co-ordinated training system. And they jeopardised course quality, TAFE sustainability and the supply of key skills. Dr Bowman said the entitlement, which guaranteed Australians training at certificate III level, had started out as a narrowly focused equity measure for young people but was extended to older people, retrenched workers and career changers, with every jurisdiction crafting the scheme differently.

Appointments

Leanne Cover, formerly a senior executive in the ACT department of education, has been appointed as CEO of the Canberra Institute of Technology.

Trevor Schwenke, formerly general manager of TAFE Queensland South West, has been appointed CEO of Bendigo Kangan Institute.

The annual ATAR hullaballoo

In January, we had the now annual hullaballoo over the efficacy or otherwise of ATARs as some standard for gaining admission to a university, sparked this year by the decision of some Victorian universities not to publish “clearly in” ATARS for three-quarters of course offers (the point at which a student with a certain will definitely get an offer for course – and may get an with a lesser ATAR anyway). Victoria University’s vice-chancellor Peter Dawkins “boldly stated that ATAR cut-off scores are very often a meaningless piece of information”. Backing him up was Swinburne University’s vice-chancellor Linda Kristjanson, who is also chair of the Victorian Vice-Chancellors Committee.

We really are in a post-ATAR stage. The ATAR is a very blunt and imperfect instrument.

Under a proposed new model, students at Templestowe College will be given the option of applying for any course at Swinburne University without an ATAR. Entry into the university’s courses – which will include the full gamut of undergraduate degrees – will be based on new measures of student ability: grit, leadership and strong inter-personal skills.

The fact is that that in the demand driven system, where universities will receive funding for every student they enroll, the ATAR is of decreasing direct relevance, though not altogether irrelevant, as a selection tool. The growth in participation in higher education sparks a rather pointless controversy over declining “entry standards”, typified this year by a breathless bit of analysis in the Sydney Morning Herald – NSW universities taking students with ATARs as low as 30.

But as The Scan observed way back in January 2013, why it should come as a surprise to any ATARs for university admission have on average declined in recent years is itself a surprise. The whole point of the reforms arising out of the Bradley Review process in 2008 was is to

To the extent that you achieve one goal, all things being equal (for example, #2 isn’t achieved at the expense of some other group) you also achieve the other. And the overall effect must be that, “on average”, a lower ATAR than had hitherto been necessary (or no ATAR at all) will get some more applicants into a university course than had previously been the case (though not into any university course at any university).

That is, the policy, seemingly, is achieving exactly what it is supposed to achieve.

In 2013, just over a third of university offers were based ATAR as the sole determining factor, and it would be somewhat less now, as universities such as Swinburne, and just about every other university (even Go8 universities), move to more broadly based entrance assessment processes. Next year, UNSW Law School, ranked last year one of the best in Australia and 15th best in the world, is introducing a Law Admission Test (you’re still going to need a pretty good ATAR).

A recent article by the Grattan Institute’s Andrew Norton shows that stories such as that run in the Sydney Morning Herald are something of a beat-up: final enrolments of 50 or below ATARs from 2013 school leavers in 2014 were only 3% of the school leaver cohort (although total low-ATAR enrolment is higher than this, due to students who finished school in other years). Norton doesn’t entirely discount the usefulness ATAR and ATAR cut-offs/clearly-ins in giving students insight into their possible options (including vocational education and training).

Review of admission transparency

Nevertheless, Commonwealth education minister Simon Birmingham bought into the debate during his address to the Universities Australia Conference (see below), saying that with rapid growth in enrolments under the demand-driven system over recent years there’s a need ensure the system remains sustainable and uncompromising on quality. He asked why, if there’s no an issue, “why do so many people expend so much annual energy on this (issue)?” On the matter of publishing reliable clearly-in data, it’s a matter of transparency:

Students need to have confidence that they know what the real requirements for admission are; not some artificial measure that bears no resemblance to reality… (current)entry requirements are perhaps as opaque sometimes as a double frosted window.

The coming date with electoral destiny

It won’t have escaped your notice that we are careening towards a Federal election. As former ALP factional enforcer Graham Richardson recently observed, on the assumption that Malcom Turnbull is not stupid, then the introduction of the Senate voting reforms must mean a double dissolution on 2 July. On the basis that Turnbull has so peed off most of the crossbench, to leave 6 of the troublesome 7 in place for the next term by not having a double dissolution would indeed be stupid (former Victorian DLP Senator John Madigan term expires, anyway and he will surely go down; SA independent Nick Xenophon supports the reforms).

The unusually long campaign (a 51 day campaign rather than the usual 31 day campaign of modern times) is tricky for the government, assuming the election is the government’s to lose (normally the case for a first term government). There’s plenty of scope for stumbles, stuff ups and scares.

The Budget isn’t too tricky an issue as the government doesn’t actually need to bring down and pass a formal Budget: there wouldn’t be time anyway. What the government needs to do is secure supply to fund the ordinary services of government: a huge swathe of Commonwealth expenditure is covered outside of the supply bills these days anyway, through standing appropriations and special appropriations contained in separate legislation (for example, university funding is provided for under the Higher Education Support Act 2003). Despite the government wanting to fight the election around industrial relations issues, budget issues are going to figure prominently, whenever the election is held, so the government may as well make a virtue out of necessity and use the work it’s being doing on the Budget as its economic policy and release details through the course of the campaign.

Policy directions

I’m not bold enough to predict the winner (although Labor has the harder task ahead of it, there’s no lay down miserein the offing, as seemed the case a few months back), but I’m bold enough to state that when the incoming prime minister meets with PM&C and Treasury officials in the afternoon of 3 July and is handed the Incoming Government Briefing Book (Blue Book for the Coalition, Red Book for Labor), you can be reasonably certain higher education will have a prominent chapter. After all, the $20 billion in savings linked to the original deregulation package, including a 20% cut to course funding, remain in the budget projections. How are the parties going to deal with that issue: the savings are either there or they’re not, and if they’re not there, they just can’t be booked into the future, ad infinitum.

Labor’s announced a largely “steady as she goes” course – notably, no funding cuts, no fee deregulation. Universities Australia is pushing for more detail and more dollars, so we’ll have to see if Labor has anything further to say or promise (we wouldn’t think much in the way of promises these straitened times – perhaps a few vague promises about getting higher education spending to the OECD average “over time”).

As for the Coalition, some reformulation of the failed higher education “reform package” will be in the Blue Book. In his speech to the Universities Australia Conference Commonwealth education minister Simon Birmingham said the government “continues to believe that some reform is necessary”:

Our government continues to believe that some reform is necessary. Reform is necessary to support innovation, both within our universities and beyond. Reform is necessary to support the provision of pathways that enhance equitable access. Reform is necessary to protect our reputation for high quality. And yes, reform is necessary to support federal budget sustainability.

But what actually happens will depend entirely on the composition of the new Senate, which won’t be known until some weeks after the election. If there is a Coalition Senate majority, expect game back on for the packages that failed to pass the Senate in 2014 and 2015. Labor hardheads figure that the combination of a double dissolution and Senate voting reform creates that possibility – but it was, of course, these same hardheads (together with their counterparts in the Coalition and the Greens) who negotiated the preference deals that parachuted the micro-parties into the Senate in the first place. I don’t think you could boldly state anything about the composition of the post-election Senate: who knows what unexpected results the new Senate voting system might throw up, what are the Greens going to do with Senate preferences (while Senate preferencing will be of considerably less value, they won’t want to jeopardise their own balance of power possibilities). And what will Greens voters do – whatever Greens leaders advocate, Greens voters are hardly likely to be inclined to support with their preferences the party that cut the tax, stopped the boats, are stalling on same sex marriage and all the rest.

In his speech to the UA Conference (which was mainly about research, innovation and collaboration), UA chair Barney Glover set out in broad terms the university sector’s policy agenda for this election year. He prefaced his comments with the observation that the sector has been subject almost 2 years of policy insecurity and uncertainty which has taken a toll on the ability of universities to plan and allocate resources (it’s actually more like 4 years, taking into account the churn that was going on in the latter days of the Gillard government). He called on the parties to clearly articulate:

the principles that guide and the objectives to be achieved by their higher education policies;

the key reforms that will deliver those objectives;

the proposed means for delivering a sustainable and stable higher education system; and,

the implications of these policies for students, universities, industry and government itself over the longer term.

In October last year, Universities Australia released its policy statement – Keep it clever 2016. This sets out in detail the context of its policy agenda (“universities are really important to the nation’s present and future security and well being”); what’s needed to drive research and innovation; public funding support for students; and government support for international education.

In his speech to, Glover declared:

The sector will never accept that maintaining the level of quality expected by our students, employers and the community can be achieved through reducing the level public investment in universities.

Well, as represented by UA, reducing public investment in universities was exactly what the sector signed up for in 2014, albeit with some disgruntlement in the ranks. And the Keep it clever document is a little less definitive: the policy is not stated as “never accept” but as:

Universities need government to ensure, in the short-term, that there is no decline in the level of per student funding for government supported student places….

In the short-termis a rather significant qualifying statement. So, it all begins again.

Private providers to be put on funding par with TAFE

The Commonwealth government would take over TAFE funding from the states under a radical plan to be presented to the states and territories at the next meeting of the Council of Australian Governments in March. Under the Turnbull government proposal, TAFE fees would be deregulated and TAFEs would receive the same levels of funding as private colleges in a bid to increase competition in the sector.

………………………………………………………………………………………….……

States could provide some top-up funding for TAFE, but only enough to ensure “competitive neutrality” with private providers under the shake-up, which would transform the vocational education and training (VET) sector.

It’s proposed that the new system would start in January 2018.

The plan has already been slammed by the NSW and Victorian skills ministers – and without the agreement of these two states, the proposal will be going nowhere.

While NSW minister John Barilaro conceded a national system could have merit, he said that he couldn’t be confident looking at a national vet sector or skills sector until such time they can clean up VET FEE-HELP debacle.

Former Holmesglen Institute CEO Bruce Mackenzie, who recently completed a major review of TAFE for the Victorian government, said the ideas contained in the paper were “clumsy” and “outdated”.

Although the paper says a federal takeover would put downward pressure on fees, Mackenzie said students would face higher costs and be saddled with increased debt if the proposals were adopted.

“This is like a prehistoric monster risen from the dead,” he said.

Under the VET FEE-HELP scheme, private college fees have risen dramatically (up to 100%) over the past couple of years.